various

After days of damp coolness, the sort of weather that I love, summer has suddenly arrived. There is sunshine, there is warmth, and I'm sitting here drinking cold water with the window open and the shades on the balcony down to limit the amount of sun exposure.

Today I went on a trip to the library, to return books. On the way home, I wandered into one of the local used bookstores. It's possibly my favourite one, because they serve coffee, there's an actual catalogue of their books, and they have an excellent book-buying policy. I do like the one with the rabbit that lives in the store, but they're closing next month (sadness). I browsed around the bookstore for a while. It's truly amazing that, when surrounded by books, I have a difficult time selecting which ones to get, because most of them just don't appeal to me.

This particular bookstore has a number of tiny rooms for each section; given the building it's in, the shop may have originally been some sort of office, and was easily converted to a bookstore with many nooks. I love that about it, because it feels like I can get lost in this small shop. 

I looked through the biography section, which I don't usually spend much time in, and found Ralph Moody's Little Britches. My mum read me his books when I was a kid, and I love them (well, up until he's an adult--interesting as his life was, I'm not as enthralled by his adventures as a stunt rider during the twenties, for some odd reason). She always used to call them "Little House on the Prairie for boys," but since she read both series to me and my brothers, I don't think it really matters. I think J. will like the book.

Then, after a futile search through children's, philosophy, mystery, and general fiction, I found myself in the sci-fi/fantasy section. I've been keeping an eye out for the Silmarillion, so now that's been added to our collection of Tolkien.

When I ventured back outdoors, and walked through the park on the way home, I noticed that the water playground was in full swing. I did a collage based on that playground a couple months ago, before it was warm enough for kids to play in the water. It's bright, and colourful, and a very fun place. I decided not to run through the fountains and go wading this time (I often do--something about water just lures me in).

I'm still knitting. I finished a sock yesterday. I'll probably cast on its mate at knit-night this evening. Toe-up socks with a heel turn that I haven't tried before--wrapped short-rows followed by a heel-flap. I've done toe-up flap heels, but not paired with the wrapped short-rows. I like the result very much; I might have to replicate it in other socks.

I also finished a hat last week. The colours are a little wonky--I'm still trying to figure out how to get my camera to do colours better. The actual shade is closer to a lavender with hints of blue in.

This is the Cobblestone Slouch hat. You can find it on Ravelry. The designer, Melissa, lives locally and I am slightly acquainted with her. She mostly does awesome yarn dyeing, but she's done a few designs. This one's quite fun, easy, and something I'm considering knitting again. J. told me it makes me look like a homeless person, but that may have been because I was also wrapped up in a scarf and sweater and fingerless gloves at the time. Besides, I'm a grad student/writer/artist. I can get away with it.